These include:
- Support for business, including by extending the enhanced loss relief for
an additional year and expanding HMRC’s Business Payment Support
Service, increasing capital allowances for new investment to 40 per cent
for one year, and establishing a £750m Strategic Investment Fund to
support advanced industrial projects of strategic importance;
- An additional £1.7bn will be set aside for the Department for Work and
Pensions over the next two years to ensure Jobcentre Plus and Flexible
New Deal capacity is in place to respond effectively to rising
unemployment and additional support for the long term unemployed,
building on the extra support now available to those unemployed for over 6
months. The package will offer a guaranteed job, training or placement to
18-24 years olds who have been unemployed for 12 months. In February
2009, there were over 28,100 people aged 18-24 claiming Jobseeker's
Allowance in the South West;
- An additional payment of £100 to households with someone aged 80 or
over and £50 to households with someone aged 60 or over, to be paid
alongside the Winter Fuel Payment in 2009-10. In the South West, this will
benefit 850,000 households, of which 220,000 households contain
someone aged 80 or over;
- A £600m fund to unlock stalled housing sites and provide a kick-start
to house-building to deliver up to an additional 10,000 homes in England.
As part of this, to stimulate housing development in the South West,
funding will be made available to local authorities in the region for
construction of new social homes to higher energy efficiency standards; and
- £275m over the next two years for energy and resource efficiency in
business, public buildings and households. For the South West this
package will mean that energy efficiency is improved in: 10000 homes; an
estimated 250 public buildings, including schools and hospitals; and
through an estimated 300 loans to businesses.
This April, the Government has also introduced changes to tax and benefits
that mean that:
- Nearly 1,890,000 basic rate tax payers in the South West will be £145
better off;
- Increases to the child element of Child Tax Credit of £75 above indexation
will benefit around 280,000 families in the South West;
- The introduction of the new £190 health in pregnancy grant will benefit the
estimated 55,000 mothers to be in the South West this year; and
- The 5% increase in the basic State Pension, along with the £60 payment
made at the beginning of the year, mean that the South West’s 1.1 million
pensioners will be better off.
The Pre Budget report also announced changes to help the economy. And
these are now delivering. For the South West, over 13,000 businesses have
benefited from being able to spread payments of tax, and the enterprise
finance guarantee scheme has ensured that viable SME’s continue to access
finance they require in the South West.
The Pre Budget Report announced that £3bn of capital expenditure would
be brought forward to 2008/9 and 2009/10. Already this has meant that in the
South West:
- 3200 homes have received grants under the Warm Front programme to improve energy efficiency;
- 13 higher education institutions have benefited from further
investment; and
- 1800 homes have been improved under the decent homes
programme.
Ben Bradshaw, Regional Minister for the South West, said:
"I welcome the measures announced in this Budget to invest in businesses
and individuals to drive economic growth. The Budget balances the need to
invest in the short-term to drive economic growth and the need to ensure the
long-term stability of the UK economy."
